Ideas abound for downtown Stockton

STOCKTON - As the city prepares for its presumed exit from bankruptcy a few months from now, timeworn questions once again are being considered by those with an interest in Stockton's future.

Roger Phillips

STOCKTON - As the city prepares for its presumed exit from bankruptcy a few months from now, timeworn questions once again are being considered by those with an interest in Stockton's future.

Where does downtown go from here?

Will it remain a place that draws government workers by day but empties at night?

Is adding more residential space the first step in a revival?

Or do the amenities that make an urban space attractive have to start to be in place before residents will consider moving downtown?

There are no easy answers.

"Whatever we do, we need to prioritize," said Micah Runner, hired last year as Stockton's economic development director. "We have to figure out if we're going to put the effort in, where are we going to start?"

In fact, one encouraging downtown trend already has begun.

In recent years, downtown has become a magnet for charter schools. Stockton Collegiate International School opened in 2010, and children from the K-12 campus pack the streets on weekdays. A bit farther east, TEAM Charter opened its doors as a K-5 school in 2012.

Developer Dan Cort, an advocate for downtown revival, spoke recently to a group that included many retired businesspeople and brought up the success of the new schools in Stockton's core.

"If we can get your kids to go to school down there," he asked, "why can't we get your businesses down there?"

It's not like there hasn't been an effort.

Before the Great Recession, millions of dollars were spent in an attempt to spark a downtown rebirth. The Weber Point Events Center, the downtown movie theater complex, Stockton Arena and Stockton Ballpark were among the results.

The construction projects used the city's waterfront as the focal point for a planned rebirth of downtown that was expected to spread outward. But that organic growth has yet to occur.

Now, though, with the economy recovering and Stockton preparing to move past bankruptcy, there is new hope for business, housing and neighborhood growth downtown.

The general idea is to find ways to market the area as a trendy place for those eager to leave suburbia in favor of a walkable urban lifestyle. Those who think about such things approach the matter from a variety of angles.

Late last year, Community Development Director Steve Chase alluded to discussions with officials at several universities about the possibility of opening a satellite campus downtown.

Others speak of finding ways to give young entrepreneurs a vastly more affordable opportunity to establish new, innovative businesses than they would find in San Francisco or elsewhere in the Bay Area.

"The idea is to introduce a culture and work force of technology in downtown Stockton that we don't have right now," said Leandro Vicuņa, head of the Downtown Stockton Alliance.

Ultimately, though, the rebirth of downtown is likely to hinge on attracting people to live there.

"If people are living downtown, we don't have to convince them to come downtown," Runner said.

Cort predicted that within five years there will be anywhere from 400 to 1,000 new housing units in the downtown core.

John Beckman, who heads the Building Industry Association of the Delta, was slightly more conservative in his projections, but he said he could envision as many as 200 new housing units downtown within three years.

If people start moving to the city's core, it is likely they will do so because they see glimmers of hope that downtown is progressing in its effort to achieve some measure of urban cachet.

Some observers, such as Runner, believe the growth of small "activity nodes" - blocks here and there with restaurants and trendy shops - will be the springboard to a livelier downtown. Others pin their hopes on long-discussed redevelopment of a 10-block stretch of Miner Avenue from the waterfront east to the Robert J. Cabral train station.

Regardless, Cort says the time for action is now.

"If we don't do what we're supposed to do now, it's at our own peril," he said. "Let's finish the infill of our city. People will come down here."

Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or rphillips@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/phillipsblog or on Twitter @rphillipsblog.